Look past that early missed three and you got a guy who took it upon himself to bring the ball inside as nobody else was interested in doing it. The rebounding was not great and I expected better, and that’s a direct product of him choosing to stay on the perimeter being a “threat” (his own words) rather than anticipating offensive rebounds, of which he had only 1.

Outplayed by MKG. Check. Lost jumpball to Kemba Walker. Check. Critical fourth quarter turnovers. Check. Embarrassing FTA total? Check. I can go on, I really can, but what I’d like to point out about Gay’s game is that given the amount of touches this guy gets, his assist numbers are horrible. I mean, I don’t think that at any point when he’s making his offensive move, does he contemplate setting up a teammate.

Brilliant. Handled multiple defenders well, did well in face-up situations, and great in the post when he was given the ball. Defensively, he got burned in pick ‘n roll situations not knowing whether to lay back or hedge, but that’s coaching. As DS pointed out in the comments, he went 4 for 7 in the first quarter meaning he had one shot in the remaining three quarters. Also, he didn’t play the fourth quarter for some reason.

Burned By Kemba Walker, benched in favor of Julyan Stone after kicking out on a three-pointer. I want the selfish Kyle Lowry back for a couple games because if he actually looked for his shot and took on the challenge Walker posed, I bet you he would destroy him. Right now, he seems to be caught between doing the “right” thing and doing what he’s good at.

Gerald Henderson owns him – case in point how in the first quarter DeRozan failed to negotiate three screens which led to scores. He did hit a couple big threes in the second quarter to pull the Raptors back even, but overall this was a low-impact game where his defensive work was abysmal and overall intensity questionable.

Some nice offensive work down low but he lost Biyombo way too many times on the offensive glass. On one play, he went for the steal on the perimeter and got burned by an And1 as he tried to cover back. Not sure what was going on there. Still, I like watching Hansbrough play – he does bring something that’s unique to the Raptors: a guy whose intensity level does not drop.

Great stuff by his recent standards. Guarded the Charlotte wings well enough and when called upon to create, did some nice drive-and-dish work. I’m liking what he’s doing of late as long as he’s not shooting the ball. Nobody wants to see that.

Second quarter shift where he drove the paint and had a nice dish underneath. Overall, though, the cost of using him as a floor-spacer is too high because he doesn’t bring anything beyond standing on the three-point line pretending he can shoot.

Anonymous for the most part. Brought the ball up the court and then passed it off, presumably because he can’t do much with it. His role is to be a defensive player and he didn’t do much in terms of that.

Better, better. Looked confident, hit a couple threes and given his miserable early and pre-season, I’m going to chalk this up as an improvement. I know that’s sad, but let’s stay a little positive.

Dwane Casey

Took way too long to switch Gay/Fields on Henderson, late on reacting to Charlotte’s game plan of going at DeRozan. No concerted effort to get JV the ball despite something positive happening EVERY TIME you give it to him. Terrible management of Rudy Gay and in general is having a difficult time figuring out how Gay and DeRozan can be effective while playing together.

Oh, did I mention that, down two, he thought it was a good idea to let Charlotte run the shot-clock all the way down and shoot the ball with two seconds left, which were spent while the ball was in the air? Patrick Ewing was shaking his head.

One more thing, he benched Jonas Valanciunas in the fourth. Like, entirely. He didn’t get off the bench.

Two Things We Saw

Charlotte shot 75% in the first quarter. Raptors came back from down 16 in the second to tie it in the second. The bench got the Raptors back in it in the second.

Generally speaking, whenever DeRozan and Gay are on the floor at the same time, jumpshots are the norm. If one of them is on the floor they tend to be more assertive and use teammates better.